Los Angeles-based rock band Abused Romance has kicked off their spring U.S. trek in support of their Freeway Records debut album Shine with fellow rockers Egypt Central. Shine, which was produced by Justin Gray (Joss Stone, INXS) and mixed by Randy Staub (Metallica, U2), is available for free download at www.abusedromance.com, and an expanded version of the album called Shine – Special Addition will be available via all digital retailers on June 13th, which will include 9 live tracks from their explosive show on April 3rd at the famed Viper Room in LA. The powerful quartet who can swing from ethereal to abrasive in the space of the same song recently shot a video for their new single “Overcome,” which has hit #41 at Active Rock. The group teamed with director Robby Starbuck (August Burns Red, The Sounds, Silverstein) for the concept video depicting frontman Meir battling an evil version of himself. Watch the clip for “Overcome” here:

Abused Romance, who is Meir Yaniv (vocals, guitar), Amit Ofir (guitar), Aetam Jakob (bass) and Roy Chen (drums), is known for delivering blistering live performances. Catch them on the road!
Abused Romance on Tour with Egypt Central and Candlelight Red:

Their time has come! The classic gems of modern day Iron Maiden are finally being collected on a late era only, 2-disc compilation. Donning their hits from 1990 – 2010, Iron Maiden has released a 2-disc set of powerful songs tilted From Fear To Eternity. The title is a nice word play off two of Iron Maiden’s better known hits from the early 90s. From Fear To Eternity is a great tribute to latter day Iron Maiden songs that seem too often to be ignored.

Obviously the fans love the classic material. If you’re seeking a collection of Maiden’s 80s hits, Somewhere Back In Time was released in 2008 and can be easily found. However, if you’ve been wondering what the band has been up to lately, but haven’t picked up any of their newer albums, this is the collection for you.

Not since 2005’s Essential Iron Maiden set have this many post modern Maiden tunes been available in one collection. Combining classics like “Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter” with modern smashes like “These Colours Don’t Run” is excellent work. And while there are some key tracks that have been excluded (most notably “Futureal” from Virtual IX), the songs that are included pack quite the wallop.

Some of the key moments on this 2-disc collection of hits come from the past decade of Maiden greatness. “Coming Home,” “For The Greater Good Of God,” and “Paschendale” all show the brilliance that Maiden has recently crafted. If you haven’t given the newer music a chance, then this is a fantastic way to reintroduce yourself to the band. The last four Iron Maiden studio albums have all been brilliant and some of the best tracks from each of those discs are captured on From Fear To Eternity.

Another nice inclusion is the rare B-side “Man On The Edge” live with Bruce Dickinson singing lead vocals. I’m not sure what tour this was recorded during, but it was nice to hear Dickinson’s take on the song. However, the decision to not include any songs that Blaze Bayley sang on comes as quite a disappointment. His rendition of “Afraid To Shoot Strangers” is exceptional and it would have been nice to see a few songs with his vocals featured on this set. As it is though, the band opted to only include the Bruce Dickinson versions of all the tracks.

As happens with any greatest hits package, there are bound to be debates over the songs that were not included in the final cut. Both “Wildest Dreams” and “The Final Frontier” are surprising absences on From Fear To Eternity. Other missed opportunities include: “From Here To Eternity,” “The Angel And The Gambler,” and “Journeyman,” just to name a few.

Overall From Fear To Eternity is a great collection of repackaged material. It you own the entire Maiden catalog, feel free to skip over this set. If you’ve missed out on some of the latter material though, then this is the perfect album to catch you up.

U.S. fans can get free downloads of the songs, “The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, and “The Wicker Man” at this link. Check it out!!

Slaughter made their third annual appearance to the M3 Rock Festival in 2011. Ok, so they technically played at three m3 Rock Festivals. Two thirds of Slaughter was Vince Neil’s backing band in 2010.

I have to admit that when I saw Slaughter at the first M3, I was pretty disappointed. Every band has its bad day, and I was hoping they would be better in 2011. Honestly, they weren’t better. Mark Slaughter’s voice wasn’t at it’s best, and that made for what I considered a somewhat lopsided performance. On the flipside, Zoltan Chaney is an absolute beast on the drums, and he is a hell of a lot of fun to watch, as is Dana Strum who always has his hair flying, and making crazy faces while playing. The band played the songs you would expect including “Spend My Life”, “Burning Bridges”, “Take Me Away”, “Wild Life”, “Up All Night”,and “Fly To the Angels”. At one point in the show, Mark Slaughter made his way into the stands while singing, which was much to the joy of many fans.

Overall, Slaughter attempted to bring it at M3, but I thought they fell a little short. I was somewhat disappointed in their set, but it was one of the few low points at M3, so who am I to complain. For another perspective on Slaughter’s set, check out Ryo’s opinion here.

Infinity is a monster project that was recorded back in 1986/87 featuring AOR star vocalist
Mitch Malloy and Red Dawn/Rainbow/Billy Joel keyboardist David Rosenthal. For one
of the many reasons seen in the music industry, the record was never released at the time,
but after 20+ years will finally see the light of day.
The 9 tracks that make up this lost classic are nothing short of blinding keyboard driven 80s
melodic hard rock, with vocals that need to be heard to be believed!
The rest of the line-up consists of various session guys, including one very young Reb Beach
(Whitesnake, Winger).

What’s special about this release is the fact that the ninth track didn’t really exist until last
month. The song Liar was never completed back in 1986, but the song was recently
resurrected from the original tape it was recorded on, repaired enough to become a true
backing track, with Mitch Malloy adding a brand new lead vocal and drum track from his
studio in Nashville.

Mitch Malloy comments: “I nfinity was basically me and Dave and we used different guys to

play on the tracks. It was 1986-87. I was a kid. So was Dave. I was singing in clubs in Jersey
and making a name for myself and looking for a real band and he was looking for a singer.
R ainbow had just broken up and he was wanting to be in his own band. I was sick of playing
the clubs and looking to step up and it worked out. We had some fun and wrote some songs
and never got signed so we both moved on to different things. It’s exciting for us that this 22
year old music is finally going to be heard. We worked hard on it and were very proud of it.
And for how old I was and for the time I am still very proud of it. It’s really my first real
recording sessions ever. Dave and I had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun and we worked very
hard to make out music as good as we could possibly make it. And I think it shows.”

Infinity will finally see the light of day in October. All of the tracks are exclusive to this
release and have never been released before.